


These Things We Do...That Others May Live

by Rhianne



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Captain America: The Winter Soldier Spoilers, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-13
Updated: 2014-04-13
Packaged: 2018-01-19 06:02:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1458601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhianne/pseuds/Rhianne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>::Captain America 2 - The Winter Soldier spoilers::</p><p>Heroes carry a heavy burden; one Sam Wilson knows all too well and can see clearly in those around him. (Deliberately vague summary to try and prevent spoiling anyone who hasn't seen the movie yet.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	These Things We Do...That Others May Live

**Author's Note:**

> Title is taken from the US Air Force Pararescue slogan.
> 
> This movie gave me so many feels that I'm still mentally working through. This is just a snippet of that as I try and get my head around what Cap2 did to the MCU universe.

Sam Wilson has little time for heroes.

That's what they call them; the ones who stand on the sidelines, encouraging others to fight for their country. He's seen too many kids march off to war, heads filled with glory and valor, only to return home broken, a piece of themselves left behind in the sand.

Two tours showed him more than he ever thought he could learn about the evil that men do. It taught him the true nature of courage; of what it means to stand up and fight for what's right. He's a soldier through and through, been called a hero a dozen times over. So was Riley, but they'd left Riley buried under unfriendly sands, unable to get close enough to bring what was left of him home to rest.

Then Sam was in Riley's family home, standing at attention and looking in the eyes of a woman whose son will never return home. They said her son had died a hero, as if that made everything better, but Sam saw in her tears how little that word really meant.

War makes heroes, brave men and women standing up for what's right, but that fight means little once the war is over. When you come back to a letter and a medal then are left alone to pick up the remnants of a life that belonged to a man you could never again become. It's then that a new battle begins, this one fought with nightmares and fear, gasping breaths and soft mattresses that you sink right through.

He sees it in Steve, too. Could see the grief and loss that morning on the grass, the same as he sees in the VA clinic every week.

Captain America may be the hero – the symbol – but Steve is the man, and it's the man who is forced to cope with the consequences of a decades-old war that he's still fighting. 

Now, Sam is sitting in a hospital room, listening to the steady beep of the heart monitor as Steve sleeps. He looks better, not as pale as he'd been when they found him lying on the shore, ashen skin a sharp contrast to the blood bubbling up from the wound in his stomach. 

But Steve is a super soldier, and Sam has seen enough already to know what that means. Steve will survive, climb back on his feet and be ready to fight again, but Sam wonders about the true cost. He's seen how it weighs on Steve's shoulders; the fear of what he was going to have to do to Barnes in order to bring the helicarriers down. 

They won and Steve survived, for a given measure of the word, but despite the fact that they stopped Hydra and saved millions of lives, Sam can't seem to forget the shock on Steve's face when he'd first seen Barnes, or the ragged screams coming from the operating room, as the doctors pulled the bullets from his body.

After everything they've seen and done, Sam thinks they're all going to find that bed just a little bit harder to settle into now.

That's the true cost of being a hero.


End file.
